"In the past two years, we have brought 1,000 Bnei Menashe to Israel," Freund said. "We hope the remaining 7,000 members of the community still in India will soon experience the same taste of freedom – next year in Jerusalem!"

One of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, the Bnei Menashe are a group of indigenous people from India's border states of Manipur and Mizoram. They were banished from Israel more than 2,700 years ago by the Assyrian Empire.

During the 19th century many of the tribe converted to Christianity. But for the past 40 years members have been converting back to Judaism.